I love ❤️ watching your channel everyday!! Not only do I get my daily fix of vintage computers from when I was a kid. But I get to watch an extremely handsome, 💯 husband material, stud-muffin! 😍
Love this channel. It's like watching the satisfying thrift find but better because you go thru everything and show it off and fix it if necessary. Your channel will go far in the future. Lots of 40 something guys/gals out there (me included) that appreciate this stuff.
@@miketech1024 I just had it pop up as a suggestion and... you're pretty cute! So you get a sub just for that. I mean the old computer stuff as well, but you're better looking than LGR! [sorry Clint]
I enjoy your videos. Partly for nostalgia (I was heavy into computers when I was a teen in the mid-90s and still work in tech) but also because of the clean, slow, methodical progress of the videos and lack of flashy editing. I am way too old for the "yo yo yo wazaaaaap" type videos that most people seem to want to make, and your tempo is a nice and enjoyable contrast to those! Keep up the good work!
Looks like the pieces of wood you took out were used as a guide for whatever was being plugged into the back of the motherboard (probably the AT keyboard plug). The gap between the case and the motherboard was fair distance apart and this helped to guide the plug right in instead of being fiddled around with causing annoyance by the user.
This is a channel I'll definitely be watching more on.... The fact that all the machines he picked up are considered special makes me feel good about rescuing P4s
P4's are nice! That's the first CPU from Intel to support VT-x (hardware virtualization). These machines are special to a lot of people, myself included. Looks like you have some really interesting videos. I've subscribed!
@@miketech1024 thank you!.. Though admittedly i haven't uploaded in several months i feel i could probably do some videos on perhaps restoring my new Sony Vaio and Alienware M7700
Amd k62 500 in a 386 case.. First ever sleeper build, Netware was nearly allways used in colleges and schools in the UK the wood also looks like a school college workshop fix. thanks for the video.
Goes to show that the retro computing scene is still going strong. Next time I come across an old computer I'll have to video the process. Subscribed!😀
Seeing the Novell logo gave me a bad flashback to the late 90’s. Couldn’t wait to get rid of the netware server and install Linux! Fun memories, thanks for the vid!
Hell yeah, a new video from my favorite hot stud! I could watch videos of you repairing old PCs all day. I love how carefully and intelligently you handle these old systems. Another excellent video! My first PC had this exact case - it was a 486. I have good memories of playing Theme Hospital, Rollercoaster, Doom, and so on. Keep up the excellent work, Mike!"
The reliable "one screw wonder" technique for hard drive mounting has stood the test of time. My protégés have learned it from me, and they'll ensure it endures.
@@keithbrown7685 I don't teach a class, but I am available for hard drive mounting consultations. My rates are reasonable, and my results are legendary.
@@prozacgodretro Yeah but can you implement, say, a paper clip or twist-tie when there are no screws around? That would be an advanced course that you should teach. I'd do it myself, except I can't pull apart a new garbage bag. Can you believe that? : )
I've done it on plenty of Baby AT motherboards. Usually only one screw hole actually lines up with a threaded post. The rest are those annoying plastic stand-offs!
As long as you're not gonna be moving house, it'll stay together OK. Amazing how hard it is to get screws for mounting hard drives, even computer shops seem not to have them. Also amazing how easy they are to lose.
The first machine has a Tyan S1590S super socket 7 motherboard. The first motherboard I bought when I got into computers. That board is long gone but I kept the box and software. I just purchased one off of eBay a few months ago. I also picked up an Enlight baby AT case too. Similar but not the exact case I used to have. Both reasonably priced. I also still have the original ATI Xpert 98 video card for that machine. I believe the Yamaha YMF719 ISA sound card I have is from that pc too. I’m in the process of rebuilding my old machine. I’m enjoying the videos. Thanks.
The answer to the WHY of the foreign items near the AT keyboard connector is..Mechanical support or strain relief..sometimes wedged "Just so" the keyboard would work..else it would not.
0:35 Funny you should say terrifying sound... When I was a kid and recordable CD's were new, I bought one without knowing anything about it. I just thought "blank cd, like blank floppy right?" So I got it home and threw it into my dad's computer. It spun up. And kept spinning up. And kept spinning up. It got so fast that I started freaking out and ejected the drive. The drive had spun the disc up so fast that when the tray opened, the disc was still spinning in the tray. It became unstable and shot out of the tray, landing on the floor and proceeding to spin a few more times.
That third pc reminded me of those old sun burnt smoker's machines that would belong to some friend's relative. I'd open a pack of bleach wipes and wipe down everything before I'd touch anything. A boot floppy with MacAfee virus scan was also part of the routine.
The piece of wood probably holds the keyboard connector in place. I had an issue way back with my 486. I would frequently move the PC and disconnect/reconnect the keyboard, and the connector came loose and didn't have a proper contact to the motherboard. I had to wiggle it around to a certain position so it would work. This probably serves the same purpose.
I remember the first time I stuck a screwdriver into a power supply while it was plugged in and powered off, like it was yesterday. August 13, 1997. My Pentium 66mhz system never powered up again.
As for the date written on that last tower with no motherboard, some countries write the date in that format (year, month, day), although personally I like the date in that format because the numbers flow from most significant to least significant, just like hours, minutes, seconds.
Not sure if I mentioned it already - the beeps when you first powered on the Tyan build is a S3 GPU specific beep that happens if you don't plug in a monitor. IIRC the last one to have this beep is the AGP Trio 3D/2X.
Mike, you are awesome. I have been watching and enjoying, but this is my first comment. Thanks so much for reviving and giving love to all these old computers! Makes me so fondly remember building PCs with my Dad in the 90's and playing all my favorite old games and simulators :) Gonna subscribe now, can't believe I haven't yet!
Thanks! These machines also take me back to those times, my Dad and I playing with hardware we’d find in the trash. Thanks for watching and subscribing!
Thanks! Yeah seeing that VLB board in this state hurt my soul... Those batteries are pure evil… Fortunately it all looks repairable so I’m optimistic about the repair!
@@miketech1024 Old batteries are the bane of vintage PC collecting. Ni-Cd like to destroy motherboards and the non rechargeable lithium ones like to eat away at the case itself.
11:30 spring eject mechanism. Oh and that "slow beep" 🤣 that got me.. have you btw noticed / checked the detected amount of ram before edge clean / after? No? Check the vid 😉
I think you're already getting more confident in front of the camera and with the commentary, looking forward to all your content from the rest of the massive haul, channel growth is good already. 👍
Thank you so much!! These systems trigger some of my earliest and fondest memories of tinkering with them as a kid. It’s just an absolute blast getting to tinker with them again! Modern desktops and servers just don’t have the same magic to me.
Really loving this stuff. Brings back memories. 16GB hard drive with Windows 98. The most power and memory you will ever need! Thank you for posting. Love and blessings from Ontario Canada.
When I had my first PC, the cpu was a K6 233. It got so hot I changed it for a MMX just a week later. The store were I bought it asked me what was the white paste I used on the heatsink, they had never seen this :) The explanation is electronic is one of my hobbies, so it was logical for me to use thermal paste. Things have changed ...
LOL. I had to replay the "bath" scene to double check... I saw what you did there with the rubber ducky! A great video Mike. Is so relaxing just to sit here on a Saturday morning, cup of tea in hand, cat on the lap... watching you take apart / describe these beautiful machines so well. Great job, and thanks. :)
Also.. I'm amazed at how much knowledge you have in your head. I would never have remembered anything about how to format that B: drive floppy properly. Those big 5.25 floppies I guess were right on the edge of being legacy when I was a kid. But still, I do remember formatting drives like this.
The progress indicator in dd may be just optional, "--status=progress" to get it , or something similar. It's been years I didn't see a Knoppix running :) Since you have many computers, I suggest you get a Lan bootable network card, for example a 3Com 3C590 PCI, and boot on network from it . You can boot a full Linux Systemrescuecd, a dos floppy image. a memtest floppy image, Plop boot manager to boot from USB, even on old computers, etc.. Of course, you need a dhcp / tftp / nfs or apache on any Linux/BSD machine.
I usually use the ‘status=progress’ flag on recent versions of dd, but this old version didn’t like it. I do like the idea of having a boot server. Good thing I have a full 25U server rack at the house!
@@miketech1024 It should be enough, I just use an old laptop hidden in a closet :) I forget to write you can have a multiboot using boot on lan, so you can choose.
Very interesting. And very nice finds, it is so rare to find AT cases in such a good shape w/o yellowing. And AT mainboards with AGP are not very common neither. The duck in the bath made me well laugh :D
Hope Nana's video card becomes a recurring thing lol. Also they make modern coin cell battery adaptors that fit into the socket of a Dallas RTC, so there's no need to buy a brand new Dallas RTC, meaning it more or less will function like any other PC at that point.
There's probably a ton of comments about the power supplies... but in case there aren't, it's kinda normal for the voltages to be a little off when they are not loaded. And hooking up a dead hard drive isn't loading them (unless it's an 8 inch from the 70s) enough. You don't have to care if the (negative) voltages aren't spot on as long as they're there. For an unloaded PSU, 4.8V-5.5V for the 5V is ok, 10-14V for the 12V and as for the negative rails - if they're in the right order of magnitude, that's all right, they are used only for the serial ports (and some rare cards that might need them). Try hooking them up to a well populated mainboard and measure again. Now - "my" tolerances for a loaded PSU are 4.9-5.2V on the 5V and 11V-12.5V on the 12V. As for the negatives - anywhere from -4 to -6 on the -5 and -10 to -14 on the -12, as they're almost always only used for the serial port. Now on ATX PSUs, the 12V are a bit more critical. Old AT mainboards mainly run on 5V.
@mike: about 5.25" drive - some drives you cannot close without floppy inside, it wasnt crysty it is working as it should, so it is normal for some drive that you cant close it without floppy :) I saw you were keep trying to close it without the disk, and you could damage it that way :) I was also stunned when i saw first 5.25" drive which was like that :)
18:18 "But you know what? I'm gonna leave it on there!" You MONSTER! How could you deprive us of "The Peel™"?? Just joking, as with all your videos, you have an amazing knowledge and vibe with retro tech! I'm looking forward to your future videos! Also want to point out that I love the rainbow watch face!
On the old dd, if you opened a second terminal and run 'watch -n 60 "kill -URS1 $(pidof dd)"' it should print the progress on the terminal the dd process is running on. More specifically, send the SIGUSR1 to the dd process to see the progress. The rest is fluff to make it work as a single command. :)
According to theretroweb, the first board is a Tyan S1590 the second one is an Aopen AP53 the third one is a DTK PKM-0038S E0 You can find more infos on there (especially for jumper settings :D ) The DTK's trident video card seems to have a very bad video output, the picture is very noisy, maybe you should look into that as well. I had an 8-bit trident vga card that had a very bad video output at some point and it turned out one of the tantalum caps was turning bad. I'm not saying that the caps are bad though, maybe it's something else. Also the 4x mitsumi drive may have issues reading your CD because it's a burned one. Old CD-Rom drives sometimes have issues reading burned CDs while regular CDs are fine
The dead battery ought not to be a show-stopper. Just try saving and exiting the BIOS. Should work. You might have to set the hard drive types but it auto-detects so that's no problem. You should be able to get it booting no problem, you'd just be left with having to do the same thing every time you boot it.
Regarding the serial mouse; it wouldn't be detected until rebooting as the driver is loaded then; it's not plug and play like you can get by with a PS/2 mouse.
45:42 An American judging date formats, now that beats everything! 😂 FYI that's the Chinese date format (albeit with 2 digits for the year instead of 4), which also happens to be the ISO one. It's a convenient format because it allows for easy sorting by date. That's my first comment on one of your videos, keep doing what you do, it's relaxing to watch, but also informative on the repair side of things.
MikeTech, I'm glad to see you're finally tearing these suckers down. It's like vehicle fixes and restores. I have brothers who do that sort of stuff, seen some on RUclips as well. I like it, same reason I like to watch computers get dissected and maybe revived. Bring it on!!!!!
2:40 some people pet their cats and dogs, Mike pets his motherboard :) 4:10 I had this graphics card! Ah, memories :) First computer, 1997. It had a 233 MHz, 64 MB ram, a 6GB HDD, and a DVD drive that was sort of working, sort of not. I was 8 and hooked right away. 5:21 oh, interesting. Never seen them floating on 1 screw. It was either both or neither. 7:28 as the saying goes, "Do as I say, not as I do" :) 8:08 funny :) 17:45 ... well, glad to say you'd get a kick out of me. Legally blonde. 20:06 oh that's dumb. Really really dumb. 24:09 hello, yellowed goodness! 36:33 ouch. That HDD is heartbreaking.
A trip down memory lane, my computer experience started with 286 and Dos 3 ish, I remember these 386 internals well, lots of happy hours spent tinkering with this type of machine back in the day.
can say I have a few k6 500s myself, they were great cpus. Still love that GUI bios. sadly they didn't catch on, oddly I didn't see a similar interface again until I got a modern system.. I hate those batteries, I lost a stack of motherboards to these things because they leaked before I could get back to where I had the boards stored. nice memories with scandisk, a lot of time spent looking at that over the years lol. that was a nice keyboard passthrough, sadly I wish more of the at cases had them.
It's been a long time, but I sort of remember the trick with WIndows 95 is to boot into Safe Mode, then delete all the hardware under Device Manager. When you reboot, it should go ahead and re-detect and re-install all the proper drivers. I remember moving between some very dissimilar hardware, and it actually worked. Having said that, there is probably a not insignificant chance of destroying the install.
Great video, I found myself checking your channel throughout the week to see if I'd missed anything after that load of relics you got last video. I'm quite impressed by how far back and how extensive your knowledge is. And yet, you look like you're 10 years younger than me, what gives! I loved the rubber ducky and your Patreon tier labels lol! Also whoever's sick I hope they got well quickly!
Thanks! I became intensely interested in the technical side of computers at around 5 years old, so I’ve been in tech nearly my entire life. Don’t worry, the ‘Get Well Soon’ card is for the battery-damaged VLB motherboard. It needed a little support in this trying time. 😂
@@miketech1024 I'm enjoying every bit of your videos! It's very nostalgic but also a ton of things I've never seen before or I've never seen done before. Lol the VLB board was very sick!
Amazing! That's a superb ratio of working vs non working stuff! Looking fordward to the motherboard repair video. About the weird memory placement on the first PC, I'm pretty sure those AT cases can have the motherboard tray removed, they usually have one or two screws on the back. Too bad there were no ISA soundcards, no need for sound on those "office" machines xD!
Thanks! Unfortunately this case has the motherboard tray riveted into place. The crusty 486 case luckily has a removable tray, but I realized that after the fact. That is one of the many features I miss about AT cases!
@@miketech1024 Wow! I thought just the drive bays were riveted, that's common, but hey that's a great SS7 AT motherboard, it even looks like a "retro sleeper" build haha! Just for fun I'm doing something similar with an AT Pentium III motherboard and a Socket 370 P3 @ 1ghz on a slocket, from the outside it looks like a 386 😁😁
Loved that rubber duck in the bath 😂 BTW, about the mouse - while serial mice are hot-pluggable, they were not PnP, so you would have had to do some sort of search for new devices, or restarted the computer after plugging in the mouse. I think that was the reason Windows didn't recognize it while it worked just fine in DOS.
I am amazed with your "no fear" attitude when your playing with these machines lol....... I would never play around like you do..... keep making vids please.
I had one of them batteries leak in an Amiga 500(Amigas and Atari STs were more common in the home this side of the pond, x86 machines were typically only found in offices until the mid '90s), thankfully it was isolated to the expansion card the battery was connected to, but my heart sank when I saw it. The machine worked, but unfortunately it meant finding a new expansion card as most Amiga software requires 1mb RAM. On the first machine, I didn't even know they still made ATs at that point in time. I guess it must've been a specialist motherboard or something.
37:14 🤣 do not expect any hdd to be good after it makes such a horrendous sound on the first init after a millenium 41:20 😱 wow it really survived 👏👍 42:00 if the drive has 2 heads, it is 99% it is 1.2Megs (5" one)
the slow beeping sounded likeg a Heart monitor. would have been funny if it suddenly went to one long beep, and the PCU burned out with much sparkling and magic smoke. "Ricky Ticky Ting- The valiant is dead!"
00:23 At my workplace in the early '90s my supervisor's office computer used that same case. The brand name on it was Belmont, LOL. They must have used a million different brand names on that case.
Ah wow! The AMI WINBIOS (as they called it, the GUI one) has a wiggly pointer! Mine didn't have that. Still, mine was a 486 so maybe an earlier version. I liked WINBIOS. Was friendly. Shame it went away and we're stuck with the same text-based mega-menus we've had since 1986 or whenever computers came with BIOS setting utilities built-in. Prior to that you had to load them from disk whenever you wanted to change a setting. Don't ask me how you'd install a boot drive on one. WINBIOS wasn't much, the icons just led to the usual sort of menus, but graphical and cute. They could have extended it further though with more windows and icons for deeper setting stuff. If they'd stuck with it you'd probably end up with Windows Vista as your BIOS utility. Ah, that 5 inch hard drive! It's from another world! Like the glorious steam age or something, it belongs on an Apple II or an Altair or something (actually Altairs often used 8" drives). Weird to see one on an actual PC. It won't have come fitted on the 486 unless it was a special request for some business that still somehow used them. Still at least now you know the lever doesn't flip down without a disk in.
You have an understated confidence in what you do and your videos are well paced and well narrated mister. Very enjoyable 👍🏻🙏
Thank you so much!
I love ❤️ watching your channel everyday!! Not only do I get my daily fix of vintage computers from when I was a kid. But I get to watch an extremely handsome, 💯 husband material, stud-muffin! 😍
Love this channel. It's like watching the satisfying thrift find but better because you go thru everything and show it off and fix it if necessary. Your channel will go far in the future. Lots of 40 something guys/gals out there (me included) that appreciate this stuff.
Thank you so much!!
@@miketech1024 I just had it pop up as a suggestion and... you're pretty cute! So you get a sub just for that. I mean the old computer stuff as well, but you're better looking than LGR! [sorry Clint]
Watching you work on those computers while I type away at my terminal consoles is oddly therapeutic
Love your videos. I miss all the sounds computers made back in the day. So refreshing watching you tare into vintage computers.
I enjoy your videos. Partly for nostalgia (I was heavy into computers when I was a teen in the mid-90s and still work in tech) but also because of the clean, slow, methodical progress of the videos and lack of flashy editing. I am way too old for the "yo yo yo wazaaaaap" type videos that most people seem to want to make, and your tempo is a nice and enjoyable contrast to those! Keep up the good work!
Thanks so much!
Those Derek minitowers! So nostalgic. I built many systems using those,
Looks like the pieces of wood you took out were used as a guide for whatever was being plugged into the back of the motherboard (probably the AT keyboard plug). The gap between the case and the motherboard was fair distance apart and this helped to guide the plug right in instead of being fiddled around with causing annoyance by the user.
..and stabilised the keyboard plug from the top
This is a channel I'll definitely be watching more on.... The fact that all the machines he picked up are considered special makes me feel good about rescuing P4s
P4's are nice! That's the first CPU from Intel to support VT-x (hardware virtualization). These machines are special to a lot of people, myself included. Looks like you have some really interesting videos. I've subscribed!
@@miketech1024 thank you!.. Though admittedly i haven't uploaded in several months i feel i could probably do some videos on perhaps restoring my new Sony Vaio and Alienware M7700
@@lukedavis436 Can’t wait to see it!
P4s were good at certain predictable tasks, hence why I think a lot of office desktops and laptops used them.
"Hoopajooped" is now my new favorite technical term. Right up there with "Borked".
AvE has done innumerable damage to my personal lexicon. 🤣
I LOVE vintage computers too! Especially 386, 486... I really really envy you. Thank you for sharing your enjoyable experiences.
Old days. Love those sounds. :)
Amd k62 500 in a 386 case.. First ever sleeper build, Netware was nearly allways used in colleges and schools in the UK the wood also looks like a school college workshop fix. thanks for the video.
Good video, enjoyed it all. I wanna see some of those laptops you got also lol.
Those ThinkPads are calling my name every day!
Goes to show that the retro computing scene is still going strong. Next time I come across an old computer I'll have to video the process. Subscribed!😀
Seeing the Novell logo gave me a bad flashback to the late 90’s. Couldn’t wait to get rid of the netware server and install Linux! Fun memories, thanks for the vid!
I’ve never had the Novell ‘experience’ myself, but I’ve heard stories LOL. Thanks!
Hell yeah, a new video from my favorite hot stud!
I could watch videos of you repairing old PCs all day. I love how carefully and intelligently you handle these old systems. Another excellent video! My first PC had this exact case - it was a 486. I have good memories of playing Theme Hospital, Rollercoaster, Doom, and so on. Keep up the excellent work, Mike!"
I wish your channel infinite growth.
Hey Mike, another great video. Loved the rubber duck @35:06! And a lack of wildlife.
The reliable "one screw wonder" technique for hard drive mounting has stood the test of time. My protégés have learned it from me, and they'll ensure it endures.
Do you teach a class on this? : )
@@keithbrown7685 I don't teach a class, but I am available for hard drive mounting consultations. My rates are reasonable, and my results are legendary.
@@prozacgodretro Yeah but can you implement, say, a paper clip or twist-tie when there are no screws around? That would be an advanced course that you should teach. I'd do it myself, except I can't pull apart a new garbage bag. Can you believe that? : )
I've done it on plenty of Baby AT motherboards. Usually only one screw hole actually lines up with a threaded post. The rest are those annoying plastic stand-offs!
As long as you're not gonna be moving house, it'll stay together OK. Amazing how hard it is to get screws for mounting hard drives, even computer shops seem not to have them. Also amazing how easy they are to lose.
If anyone deserves that 200 PC haul its you man. Content for years :)
The first machine has a Tyan S1590S super socket 7 motherboard. The first motherboard I bought when I got into computers. That board is long gone but I kept the box and software. I just purchased one off of eBay a few months ago. I also picked up an Enlight baby AT case too. Similar but not the exact case I used to have. Both reasonably priced. I also still have the original ATI Xpert 98 video card for that machine. I believe the Yamaha YMF719 ISA sound card I have is from that pc too. I’m in the process of rebuilding my old machine. I’m enjoying the videos. Thanks.
You should keep the motherboard in that case. The fact that it is unusual makes it unique.
The answer to the WHY of the foreign items near the AT keyboard connector is..Mechanical support or strain relief..sometimes wedged "Just so" the keyboard would work..else it would not.
0:35 Funny you should say terrifying sound... When I was a kid and recordable CD's were new, I bought one without knowing anything about it. I just thought "blank cd, like blank floppy right?" So I got it home and threw it into my dad's computer. It spun up. And kept spinning up. And kept spinning up. It got so fast that I started freaking out and ejected the drive. The drive had spun the disc up so fast that when the tray opened, the disc was still spinning in the tray. It became unstable and shot out of the tray, landing on the floor and proceeding to spin a few more times.
🤣 This had me cackling to myself at dinner, now the whole restaurant is staring at me 🤣🤣
nice video, I remember one of the pc (amd) was like mine in late 90s,
That third pc reminded me of those old sun burnt smoker's machines that would belong to some friend's relative. I'd open a pack of bleach wipes and wipe down everything before I'd touch anything. A boot floppy with MacAfee virus scan was also part of the routine.
The piece of wood probably holds the keyboard connector in place. I had an issue way back with my 486. I would frequently move the PC and disconnect/reconnect the keyboard, and the connector came loose and didn't have a proper contact to the motherboard. I had to wiggle it around to a certain position so it would work. This probably serves the same purpose.
I remember the first time I stuck a screwdriver into a power supply while it was plugged in and powered off, like it was yesterday.
August 13, 1997. My Pentium 66mhz system never powered up again.
As for the date written on that last tower with no motherboard, some countries write the date in that format (year, month, day), although personally I like the date in that format because the numbers flow from most significant to least significant, just like hours, minutes, seconds.
Not sure if I mentioned it already - the beeps when you first powered on the Tyan build is a S3 GPU specific beep that happens if you don't plug in a monitor. IIRC the last one to have this beep is the AGP Trio 3D/2X.
These vids are a blast from the best.
Mike, you are awesome. I have been watching and enjoying, but this is my first comment. Thanks so much for reviving and giving love to all these old computers! Makes me so fondly remember building PCs with my Dad in the 90's and playing all my favorite old games and simulators :) Gonna subscribe now, can't believe I haven't yet!
Thanks! These machines also take me back to those times, my Dad and I playing with hardware we’d find in the trash. Thanks for watching and subscribing!
Be still, my heart! Knoppix to the rescue! xx
This video was sooooo relaxing to watch!
Can't wait to see more from the haul and the repair video on that poor VLB motherboard. Hopefully you can revive it.
Thanks! Yeah seeing that VLB board in this state hurt my soul... Those batteries are pure evil… Fortunately it all looks repairable so I’m optimistic about the repair!
@@miketech1024 Old batteries are the bane of vintage PC collecting. Ni-Cd like to destroy motherboards and the non rechargeable lithium ones like to eat away at the case itself.
Very interesting retro systems, like!
I love all of these videos start to finish. thank you.
11:30 spring eject mechanism. Oh and that "slow beep" 🤣 that got me.. have you btw noticed / checked the detected amount of ram before edge clean / after? No? Check the vid 😉
I think you're already getting more confident in front of the camera and with the commentary, looking forward to all your content from the rest of the massive haul, channel growth is good already. 👍
Thanks!
Hey Mike! I love your channel and 100% support what you do for these older systems.
Thank you so much!! These systems trigger some of my earliest and fondest memories of tinkering with them as a kid. It’s just an absolute blast getting to tinker with them again! Modern desktops and servers just don’t have the same magic to me.
Thanks! I enjoy your teardowns.
Thank you so much!!
Really loving this stuff. Brings back memories. 16GB hard drive with Windows 98. The most power and memory you will ever need! Thank you for posting. Love and blessings from Ontario Canada.
When I had my first PC, the cpu was a K6 233. It got so hot I changed it for a MMX just a week later.
The store were I bought it asked me what was the white paste I used on the heatsink, they had never seen this :)
The explanation is electronic is one of my hobbies, so it was logical for me to use thermal paste.
Things have changed ...
LOL. I had to replay the "bath" scene to double check... I saw what you did there with the rubber ducky!
A great video Mike. Is so relaxing just to sit here on a Saturday morning, cup of tea in hand, cat on the lap... watching you take apart / describe these beautiful machines so well. Great job, and thanks. :)
Thanks so much!
Also.. I'm amazed at how much knowledge you have in your head. I would never have remembered anything about how to format that B: drive floppy properly. Those big 5.25 floppies I guess were right on the edge of being legacy when I was a kid. But still, I do remember formatting drives like this.
sometimes those power supplies have to have a hard drive connected to register the correct power on the meter. Just FYI.
The progress indicator in dd may be just optional, "--status=progress" to get it , or something similar.
It's been years I didn't see a Knoppix running :)
Since you have many computers, I suggest you get a Lan bootable network card, for example a 3Com 3C590 PCI, and boot on network from it .
You can boot a full Linux Systemrescuecd, a dos floppy image. a memtest floppy image, Plop boot manager to boot from USB, even on old computers, etc..
Of course, you need a dhcp / tftp / nfs or apache on any Linux/BSD machine.
I usually use the ‘status=progress’ flag on recent versions of dd, but this old version didn’t like it.
I do like the idea of having a boot server. Good thing I have a full 25U server rack at the house!
@@miketech1024 It should be enough, I just use an old laptop hidden in a closet :)
I forget to write you can have a multiboot using boot on lan, so you can choose.
Loved this video. I could put these type of retro-tech exploration videos on repeat while I work and watch all day :D Thanks!
Very interesting. And very nice finds, it is so rare to find AT cases in such a good shape w/o yellowing. And AT mainboards with AGP are not very common neither.
The duck in the bath made me well laugh :D
No bath is complete without one! 🙂
Hope Nana's video card becomes a recurring thing lol. Also they make modern coin cell battery adaptors that fit into the socket of a Dallas RTC, so there's no need to buy a brand new Dallas RTC, meaning it more or less will function like any other PC at that point.
This was a great video. Thank you
There's probably a ton of comments about the power supplies... but in case there aren't, it's kinda normal for the voltages to be a little off when they are not loaded. And hooking up a dead hard drive isn't loading them (unless it's an 8 inch from the 70s) enough.
You don't have to care if the (negative) voltages aren't spot on as long as they're there. For an unloaded PSU, 4.8V-5.5V for the 5V is ok, 10-14V for the 12V and as for the negative rails - if they're in the right order of magnitude, that's all right, they are used only for the serial ports (and some rare cards that might need them).
Try hooking them up to a well populated mainboard and measure again. Now - "my" tolerances for a loaded PSU are 4.9-5.2V on the 5V and 11V-12.5V on the 12V. As for the negatives - anywhere from -4 to -6 on the -5 and -10 to -14 on the -12, as they're almost always only used for the serial port.
Now on ATX PSUs, the 12V are a bit more critical. Old AT mainboards mainly run on 5V.
Really enjoy watching the video. Keep up the amazing work Mike.
Thanks!
@mike: about 5.25" drive - some drives you cannot close without floppy inside, it wasnt crysty it is working as it should, so it is normal for some drive that you cant close it without floppy :) I saw you were keep trying to close it without the disk, and you could damage it that way :) I was also stunned when i saw first 5.25" drive which was like that :)
I love the dedication to repairing that 486 board. Most people would have just tossed it.
Thanks! I'd never forgive myself for not trying to save a VLB 486!
18:18 "But you know what? I'm gonna leave it on there!" You MONSTER! How could you deprive us of "The Peel™"??
Just joking, as with all your videos, you have an amazing knowledge and vibe with retro tech! I'm looking forward to your future videos!
Also want to point out that I love the rainbow watch face!
I’d feel kinda bad for being the one to peel it off after all these years. 🤣 Thanks!
This is turning into one of my favorite channels. As a collector of old computers, I love your videos.
Thanks!!
I got addicted to this channel pretty fast. « Things escalated quickly » XD
Those barrel batteries are timebombs
They’re pure evil…
On the old dd, if you opened a second terminal and run 'watch -n 60 "kill -URS1 $(pidof dd)"' it should print the progress on the terminal the dd process is running on. More specifically, send the SIGUSR1 to the dd process to see the progress. The rest is fluff to make it work as a single command. :)
According to theretroweb,
the first board is a Tyan S1590
the second one is an Aopen AP53
the third one is a DTK PKM-0038S E0
You can find more infos on there (especially for jumper settings :D )
The DTK's trident video card seems to have a very bad video output, the picture is very noisy, maybe you should look into that as well. I had an 8-bit trident vga card that had a very bad video output at some point and it turned out one of the tantalum caps was turning bad. I'm not saying that the caps are bad though, maybe it's something else.
Also the 4x mitsumi drive may have issues reading your CD because it's a burned one. Old CD-Rom drives sometimes have issues reading burned CDs while regular CDs are fine
The dead battery ought not to be a show-stopper. Just try saving and exiting the BIOS. Should work. You might have to set the hard drive types but it auto-detects so that's no problem. You should be able to get it booting no problem, you'd just be left with having to do the same thing every time you boot it.
Awesome video dude!
Love those cases, i gotta find one.
great video :)
Looks good! I forgot about the turbo button programming. Last saw those in person when I was in high school working at a local pc repair store.
I remember using some of those cases on my builds back then. 👍
Excellent, So much hardware nostalgia. I upgraded so many computers of this era in the mid 1990s. Keep up the great work on the channel.
Regarding the serial mouse; it wouldn't be detected until rebooting as the driver is loaded then; it's not plug and play like you can get by with a PS/2 mouse.
45:42 An American judging date formats, now that beats everything! 😂
FYI that's the Chinese date format (albeit with 2 digits for the year instead of 4), which also happens to be the ISO one. It's a convenient format because it allows for easy sorting by date.
That's my first comment on one of your videos, keep doing what you do, it's relaxing to watch, but also informative on the repair side of things.
MikeTech, I'm glad to see you're finally tearing these suckers down. It's like vehicle fixes and restores. I have brothers who do that sort of stuff, seen some on RUclips as well. I like it, same reason I like to watch computers get dissected and maybe revived.
Bring it on!!!!!
Excellent video. You make hardware repair and teardown entertaining even to an incurable software guy like me.
2:40 some people pet their cats and dogs, Mike pets his motherboard :)
4:10 I had this graphics card! Ah, memories :) First computer, 1997. It had a 233 MHz, 64 MB ram, a 6GB HDD, and a DVD drive that was sort of working, sort of not. I was 8 and hooked right away.
5:21 oh, interesting. Never seen them floating on 1 screw. It was either both or neither.
7:28 as the saying goes, "Do as I say, not as I do" :)
8:08 funny :)
17:45 ... well, glad to say you'd get a kick out of me. Legally blonde.
20:06 oh that's dumb. Really really dumb.
24:09 hello, yellowed goodness!
36:33 ouch. That HDD is heartbreaking.
That vx issue in win95 startup is easy to fix, you just need to reinstall Network device drivers and it will do the trick.
I’m gonna have to dust off some very old brain cells to get back into debugging Win9x!
A trip down memory lane, my computer experience started with 286 and Dos 3 ish, I remember these 386 internals well, lots of happy hours spent tinkering with this type of machine back in the day.
Good vid, with all those vintage computers you should have content for a while. Looking forward to seeing the channel grow.
Thanks!!
22:50 if you you exit the bios setup without saving the system will boot further even without the battery
I knew there had to be some weird trick to get around that - Thanks!
I really enjoy your videos! Your obvious passion for the subject matter really shows through :)
Love this channel... and all the old PC's
You're taking a long time to finish off that can of Pepsi, it'll be flat soon! 🤣But great videos, I really look forward to watching these. 😬
🤣 I found that can inside the wall while re-modeling my bathroom. Thanks!!
can say I have a few k6 500s myself, they were great cpus. Still love that GUI bios. sadly they didn't catch on, oddly I didn't see a similar interface again until I got a modern system.. I hate those batteries, I lost a stack of motherboards to these things because they leaked before I could get back to where I had the boards stored. nice memories with scandisk, a lot of time spent looking at that over the years lol. that was a nice keyboard passthrough, sadly I wish more of the at cases had them.
It's been a long time, but I sort of remember the trick with WIndows 95 is to boot into Safe Mode, then delete all the hardware under Device Manager. When you reboot, it should go ahead and re-detect and re-install all the proper drivers. I remember moving between some very dissimilar hardware, and it actually worked. Having said that, there is probably a not insignificant chance of destroying the install.
Great video, I found myself checking your channel throughout the week to see if I'd missed anything after that load of relics you got last video.
I'm quite impressed by how far back and how extensive your knowledge is. And yet, you look like you're 10 years younger than me, what gives!
I loved the rubber ducky and your Patreon tier labels lol! Also whoever's sick I hope they got well quickly!
Thanks! I became intensely interested in the technical side of computers at around 5 years old, so I’ve been in tech nearly my entire life.
Don’t worry, the ‘Get Well Soon’ card is for the battery-damaged VLB motherboard. It needed a little support in this trying time. 😂
@@miketech1024 I'm enjoying every bit of your videos! It's very nostalgic but also a ton of things I've never seen before or I've never seen done before.
Lol the VLB board was very sick!
@@miketech1024 Dude, Vesa Local Bus must be older than you are!
I love this. Every one is like a little box of surprises!
Nice one 👍 😊 Had a day from hell and a killer migraine, but this cheered me up a bit 😄
Thanks!!
@@miketech1024 😉👍👍
Those old hard drives reminds me of a geiger counter or radiometer sound.
Amazing! That's a superb ratio of working vs non working stuff! Looking fordward to the motherboard repair video. About the weird memory placement on the first PC, I'm pretty sure those AT cases can have the motherboard tray removed, they usually have one or two screws on the back. Too bad there were no ISA soundcards, no need for sound on those "office" machines xD!
Thanks! Unfortunately this case has the motherboard tray riveted into place. The crusty 486 case luckily has a removable tray, but I realized that after the fact. That is one of the many features I miss about AT cases!
@@miketech1024 Wow! I thought just the drive bays were riveted, that's common, but hey that's a great SS7 AT motherboard, it even looks like a "retro sleeper" build haha! Just for fun I'm doing something similar with an AT Pentium III motherboard and a Socket 370 P3 @ 1ghz on a slocket, from the outside it looks like a 386 😁😁
Loved that rubber duck in the bath 😂 BTW, about the mouse - while serial mice are hot-pluggable, they were not PnP, so you would have had to do some sort of search for new devices, or restarted the computer after plugging in the mouse. I think that was the reason Windows didn't recognize it while it worked just fine in DOS.
I am amazed with your "no fear" attitude when your playing with these machines lol....... I would never play around like you do..... keep making vids please.
Thanks! Fortunately, I learned what not to do (the hard way) when I was a kid LOL.
I had one of them batteries leak in an Amiga 500(Amigas and Atari STs were more common in the home this side of the pond, x86 machines were typically only found in offices until the mid '90s), thankfully it was isolated to the expansion card the battery was connected to, but my heart sank when I saw it. The machine worked, but unfortunately it meant finding a new expansion card as most Amiga software requires 1mb RAM.
On the first machine, I didn't even know they still made ATs at that point in time. I guess it must've been a specialist motherboard or something.
Loved watching what you did with this haul. Love that they went to a great home! We'll reach out when we get more, cheers!
Another great video, please keep it up! It helps scratch a bit of the retro PC itch I have.
I'm liking what I'm seeing from you so far with these old rigs, I'm subbing along for the ride 😀
37:14 🤣 do not expect any hdd to be good after it makes such a horrendous sound on the first init after a millenium 41:20 😱 wow it really survived 👏👍 42:00 if the drive has 2 heads, it is 99% it is 1.2Megs (5" one)
the slow beeping sounded likeg a Heart monitor. would have been funny if it suddenly went to one long beep, and the PCU burned out with much sparkling and magic smoke.
"Ricky Ticky Ting- The valiant is dead!"
I love this particular style of case, would love to find some of my own
45:44 Date YY/MM/DD is very normal .... in Europe ;-) It is also easy sorting.
00:23 At my workplace in the early '90s my supervisor's office computer used that same case. The brand name on it was Belmont, LOL. They must have used a million different brand names on that case.
" ... and it's working just fine, that's its normal death rattle ..." LOL Sorry couldn't help it!
Ah wow! The AMI WINBIOS (as they called it, the GUI one) has a wiggly pointer! Mine didn't have that. Still, mine was a 486 so maybe an earlier version.
I liked WINBIOS. Was friendly. Shame it went away and we're stuck with the same text-based mega-menus we've had since 1986 or whenever computers came with BIOS setting utilities built-in. Prior to that you had to load them from disk whenever you wanted to change a setting. Don't ask me how you'd install a boot drive on one. WINBIOS wasn't much, the icons just led to the usual sort of menus, but graphical and cute. They could have extended it further though with more windows and icons for deeper setting stuff. If they'd stuck with it you'd probably end up with Windows Vista as your BIOS utility.
Ah, that 5 inch hard drive! It's from another world! Like the glorious steam age or something, it belongs on an Apple II or an Altair or something (actually Altairs often used 8" drives). Weird to see one on an actual PC. It won't have come fitted on the 486 unless it was a special request for some business that still somehow used them. Still at least now you know the lever doesn't flip down without a disk in.
Another awesome video 🎉